[Healeys] New Post on my Blog...tire truing

Bob Spidell bspidell at comcast.net
Wed Sep 30 10:16:41 MDT 2015


The wire wheel specialists I've known don't bother with the spokes when rebuilding a wheel--e.g. when replacing a worn center hub--they just cut the old spokes out with a bolt cutter. It's a labor intensive job, and the spokes are a relatively small part of the cost. 

----- Original Message -----





True enough. Trying to true a wheel that is even mildly flattened or more often potato chipped seldom succeeds, leaves an unstable wheel because some spokes are loose and that is unsafe because some spokes are overstressed. I think MWS will shorten pre-existing high quality butted spokes as needed. So, if the rim is reasonably circular, perhaps the long-term solution is to relace the wheel with new spokes. 










The problem with trying to true the old 48 spoke wheels is that the nipples seize on the spokes after 60 odd years and it is virtually impossible to free up the threads to save the spokes which are just not available for these really early wheels .... also the actual rim itself is often a little distorted and straightening that is very difficult and cannot be achieved by simply adjusting the spokes. 


I had heard of people deflating the tire and rotating it 90 degrees on the rim then checking again so I gave that a try... There was no measurable change although I tried it in all 4 quadrants on the worst wheel ... I suspect that modern tires are made pretty accurately. 


Regarding the "scalloping" I actually made 4 cuts on each tire and managed to position the blade to cut the tread fairly much like the original profile.. After a 10 mile run the tires look just like they did when before the treatment. 


Michael S 


BN1 #174 





On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 10:18 AM, Bob Spidell < bspidell at comcast.net > wrote: 




Ingenious, and very not PC, but, wouldn't it have been easier to true the wheels? 





You probably want to run a little under-inflated as well, to compensate for the width-wise scalloping of the tread. 













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